Andrew Russeth

Dog burritos. Corinna prefers the pug that looks like an Ewok. Paul prefers the puppy that is wrapped in an actual tortilla. Paddy wonders what the selection criteria we’re all using, and would agree with Paul if there wasn’t the worry that puppy could accidentally be eaten. Given that that’s the case, Paddy chooses the terrier wrapped in leopard print. [Sad and Useless]

After being cleared of phone-hacking charges, media maverick Rebekah Brooks is making headlines again. It is rumored that she will be rehired by Rupert Murdoch to head up the social-networking news site Storyful. Terrifying. [The Guardian]

What makes a movie bad ass? A thoroughly convincing essay on the subject. [The Weeklings]

Triennial reviews are coming out: AFC’s discussion of individual works includes this zinger from Corinna Kirsch “Panels leaning against pedestals. Where am I? An art fair?”. Over at artnet News, Paddy Johnson discuss the Triennial’s obsession with the figure. Holland Cotter at the New York Times says the show adds up to some of the most distinctive art of the past decade. Hyperallergic’s Thomas Micchelli finds the show lacks excitement, and its focus on technology given its ubiquitous presence “feels dated and even a little clueless.” Also at Hyperallergic, Benjamin Sutton found it too crowded. Art Agenda’s Andrew Stefan Weiner says the show looks like a Tumblr and has mixed feelings on its success. On the one hand there’s curatorial legerdemain. On the other, not all the works live up to artist and curator Ryan Trecartin’s example. ARTnews’s Andrew Russeth thinks the Triennial shows that “new ideas are on the rise,” and over at Christie’s, Brienne Walsh doesn’t think the show’s got enough cohesion. Given the number of cohesive moments identified by other critics, Walsh’s thesis is the most easily challenged of them all. [The Internet]

Paul Chan’s Hugo Boss Prize exhibition gets a nod from Holland Cotter at the Times. The reason why, though, remains a bit convoluted. “Mr. Chan’s work is always surprising and as smart as art gets, which means, among other things, that it’s smart enough not to always give us the art we think we want.” [The New York Times]

Yet another adventure in the life of the rich and famous. Swiss business magnate Yves Bouvier has been charged with fraud and money laundering for allegedly inflating the prices of Picasso, Modigliani, Gauguins; those works were then sold to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, who, if it matters to you, owns the Greek island of Skorpios, purchased from the Onassis family. [Luxembourger Wort]

In Bushwick, the Roberta’s Pizza Empire is crumbling. One of the three restaurant’s owners has split off, and is seeking $5.4 million for his stake in the company. [Brooklyn Magazine via New York Post]

Meet Andy Warhol’s family, the Warholas. They’re kickstarting a film called Uncle Andy—with your help! Now, for the low price of $2,500, you too can own a “Rusyn Tradition Decorated Ostrich Egg” painted by Warhol’s niece Madalen. Abby Warhola is apparently well trained in the art of the selfie. [Artforum]

Marina Abramovic is publishing a memoir. If you’re curious why the artist has decided to release a tell-all of her life in the former Yugoslavia, this is indeed about giving people “the courage to do the things they’re afraid to do in their own lives.” [Arts Beat]

Chicago-based, Cuban-born artist Alejandro Figueredo Díaz-Perera has been living behind a wall for three weeks, in quiet protest of his U.S.-Cuban policies. [Chicago Magazine]

Márcia Oliani, 54, the finance manager of an art gallery who recently endured six days without water in her Sao Paolo apartment unleashes some crazy vitriol on the governor and the water utility company Sabesp. The city has been experiencing the worst drought they’ve had in the last century “I feel hatred, hatred of the governor and of Sabesp,” she said. “I’d like to take them out and set fire to them. They completely failed to warn us, and have just continued to lie about this throughout.” [The New York Times]

City Desk Studio has been trying to sell the skyway they purchased in 2006 for $1.2 million since 2009. Having been unsuccessful, they are now offering $5000 to anyone who will purchase it. Greg Allen has devised a cheapo shipping option, which involves removing the skyway’s floor, but we think the permits required to get it on the barge he’s proposed might blow the budget. [Greg Allen]

A new book of Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko’s writings: The Artist’s Reality: Philosophies of Art. [Amazon]

Looks like we all need to move to Minneapolis. Some stats: “The Minneapolis–St. Paul metro area is richer by median household income than Pittsburgh or Salt Lake City (or New York, or Chicago, or Los Angeles). Among residents under 35, the Twin Cities place in the top 10 for highest college-graduation rate, highest median earnings, and lowest poverty rate, according to the most recent census figures.” Why is the city so successful? According to Myles Shaver, a professor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, it’s because “its most important resource never leaves the city: educated managers of every level.” I guess that’s a resource more valuable than oil. [The Atlantic]

Nothing even remotely to do with art, but you gotta read Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis in the Times opinion pages today. He talks uses game theory and Kant to explain his position on austerity and Greek’s current negotiation strategy. [The New York Times]

And for those who want to know more about Yanis Varoufakis, an apparent heart throb in Greece, here’s the “Fuck Yeah Yanis Varoufakis” Tumblr, complete with duckfaces. [Fuck Yeah, Yanis Varoufakis]

And for those who want to know more about the economics of the Greece financial crisis and how it relates to the history of World War I, there’s Paul Krugman hitting it out of the park. [The New York Times]

71-year-old artist David Hammons has announced he is opening a gallery in Yonkers, but little details are known. Here’s what Andrew Russeth found out about the gallery: “Hammons’s space, at 39 Lawrence Street, is a one-story brick building with tall ceilings, filling a lot that measures two-thirds of an acre, about 29,200 square feet. According to property records, an entity called Duchamp Realty LLC, which is registered to the artist’s home address in Brooklyn, bought it for $2.05 million in January 2014.” [ARTnews]

Congratulations, again, to Pierre Huyghe for winning the 2015 Kurt Schwitters Award! Here’s AFC’s posts on the digital-conceptual-minimal artist. (“I do not own Tate Modern or the Death Star” remains one of Corinna’s all-time favorite works of art in neon.) [Artforum]

A letter from “Artists for Palestine” was published over this weekend in The Guardian. Over 700 art-worlders have decided to disengage with Israel in the cultural sphere. This means that invitations to any cultural centers with ties to the Israeli government will be declined. The 700 includes John Berger, Brian Eno, and Jeremy Deller. [The Guardian]

Artforum’s profile on the Greek-born American sculptor Chryssa ends on a rather strange note. “One day in her studio, I noticed a gun. She pointed to it and said she was planning to shoot [Arnold] Glimcher. Sure she was being mistreated and ignored in New York, she shut her studio on lower Broadway for good and apparently returned to Athens.” Chryssa died earlier this year in Greece. (Above: Chryssa’s “Large Bird Shape.” Courtesy Albright-Knox Art Gallery.) [Artforum via Andrew Russeth]

“If elected president, Barack Obama plans to prioritize, well, barring broadband providers like AT&T and Comcast from prioritizing Internet content.” That was in 2007. With news this week that the F.C.C. is considering “fast lanes” for commercial providers, let’s hope that he keeps to his promise. [CNET via Reddit]

Next week, the Frieze Art Fair will come to New York yet again; talks will include a keynote by UbuWeb founder Kenneth Goldsmith and a roundtable between Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot and David Remnick of the New Yorker. We’re sure these talks will fill up quickly—their lecture hall is pretty tiny. [Frieze via Artsbeat]

Bill de Blasio has not yet addressed his promise to stop the Central Library Plan, and instead he’s kept $151 million in the budget for the renovation. Very fishy. [Bloomberg News]

Artspace provides their own rankings system for “10 of the Most Influential MFA Programs in the World.” Not sure if they talked to anyone at the School of the Art Institute (where Corinna went for grad school); their excerpt focuses on their MA program in Visual and Critical Studies, not an MFA program. Thankfully, Artspace lists off the ridiculous amount you’ll pay in tuition by enrolling in any of these programs: Bard costs $55,000 per year; Columbia costs 51,676; and UCLA sounds like a bargain at $23,465 for out-of-state residents. Sigh. [Artspace]

More on the ongoing battle between hedge funder and activist shareholder Daniel Loeb and the storied auction house Sotheby’s. Loeb has nominated three director candidates and now advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that shareholders vote for two of the three board nominees he has proposed, one of them being Loeb himself. [New York Times]

Hyperallergic has partnered with London’s Lost Lectures. Tonight, The Awl co-founder and blogger Choire Sicha will talk along with Photographer Barbara Nitke, street performers Flex (is King) + Deirdre Schoo and scientist Marc Abrahams. Should be an interesting night. [Hyperallergic]

At a White House event for kids, a 10-year-old girl hands Michelle Obama her dad’s resume, and says he’s been out of work for three years. [NPR]

London’s Victoria & Albert Museum just made a pile of money. They’ve confirmed rumors that they are getting the blockbuster Alexander McQueen show. [Artnet]

Kriston Capps continues his coverage on Washington, D.C.’s Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art and Design. On April 7, the museum’s board, along with the boards of the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University were supposed to vote on how the Corcoran will be absorbed into these other two institutions. That deadline was skipped. [City Paper]

It’s Old Masters Week! That might not have much appeal to the world-at-large, but all week, New York’s auction houses are putting Renaissance works up on the block. One new development this year: Sotheby’s is introducing a private selling exhibition in conjunction with its auction. [Gallerist NY]

Mana Contemporary is hedging its bets on Jersey City’s tourism industry. The New Jersey-based art gallery, studio, and storage space has plans to build a Jersey City hotel, as well as a sculpture park and theatre near the Mana campus. And because Mana owner Moishe Mana has money—or an affinity for risk—new Mana “branches” are in the works for London and Los Angeles, and there’s a plan for a street-art museum close to the Holland Tunnel. [The Art Newspaper]

If you have a penis you may be more likely to get sick this winter. [Salon]

This whole Gawker vs. Quentin Tarantino controversy is way less interesting than the time they outed him as a toe-sucking creep. [Gawker]

Some good news for writers: The Knight Foundation is launching a new $1 million initiative to fund non-profit journalism. Applications open February 1, 2014. [Nieman Journalism Lab]

The new iPhone os won’t auto-correct misspellings of “abortion.” There are many other “hot button” words that also aren’t offered auto-corrections, but they aren’t equivalents; “rape,” “murder,” “virginity,” or the like. The more I think about this policy, the more offensive I find it. [The Daily Beast]

Your hate-read for the day: 750 words on why interviewing foxy celebrities ruined this journalist’s ability to date women who weren’t famous. [The New York Times]

Carolina Garcia Jayaram has been named CEO of United States Artists, a major grantmaking organization for artists. She leaves her position as Executive Director of the Chicago Artists Coalition. [United States Artists, via: Art Daily]

When discussing the work of William Burroughs, art critic Peter Schjeldahl describes the difference between literary criticism and art criticism. “The experience [of literature] is so drawn out,” he tells the New Yorker. “The experience of art works is very concentrated and it can be renewed. It doesn’t take very much time.” [The New Yorker, via: Andrew Russeth]

Legendary folk singer, amazing person and activist, Pete Seeger has died at age 94. [The Guardian]

Rob Pruitt Art Awards were announced last night. Andrew Russeth nabs best critic (Mazel-tov!). Rosemarie Trockel, Artist of The Year (Woot!), and Wade Guyton Os, Solo Show of the Year (LOLZ). [Art in America]

Julia Kaganskiy has been appointed the Director of the New Museum’s new incubator for art, technology, and design. What a great appointment! [The New Museum]

The Detroit Institute of Arts continues to live on a roller coaster of pseudo news. Detroit has been deemed eligible to file for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy, which has prompted a bunch of new stories about the fate of D.I.A.’s collection. What’s the new information here? Almost nothing. [Art in America]

The MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” grant recipients have been announced. The five year, $625,000 grant, is amongst the highest accolades a professional can receive, and famously comes with “No Strings Attached”. Carrie Mae Weems is the only visual artist on the list. [The Atlantic Wire]

Santiago Calatrava is having a bad day. Suzanne Daley has collected all the projects he’s done that have run over budget or fail to respond to the needs of his clients. The list amounts to three page long feature on his fuck-ups. (An enjoyable read.) [The New York Times]

Andy Horwitz went to a symposium about Theaster Gates’s Dorchester Projects at the New School’s Vera List center. He examines the relationship between the lecture and the work it discussed, and has some great quotes from Gates about money. [Culturebot]

Can’t say we agree with Christian Viveros-Faune’s latest review of the Propellor Group’s Lived, Lives, Will Live at Lombard Freid Projects. The show takes on the art world’s obsession with celebrity, by creating, amongst other works, a series of paintings that weave the hair pieces worn by Hollywood Star turned art collector, Leonardo DiCaprio, onto paintings of Lenin. Mysteriously, CVF likes this. [The Village Voice]

“I probably use more paint than anyone in the history of art,” says Artist Holton Rower proudly. “50 gallons!” he tells us, multiple times. He then explains that with the paint used to produce one of his works, you could paint a house inside and out 10 times. Did Rower mention how much paint it takes to make his work? [Tips]

Ed Winkleman and Elizabeth Dee will be speaking in Art Basel on the role of mid-level galleries. Here’s a preview of their talk, in interview form. [Winkleman Blog]

Art dealer Matthew Marks and curator Jack Bankowsky’s West Village townhouse is up for sale. For $17.5 million, you, too, can own ceilings made for large-scale art, seven fireplaces, powder room, and basement gym. [Curbed New York]

Frieze has been killing it on the Biennale coverage. Dan Fox has a few afterthoughts on the Venice Biennale. I particularly like his rebuttal to this year’s biennale critics. [Frieze]

We could have predicted this one, but the Pratt art store is finally closing. The art school’s film and video department will move into the building. [DNAinfo]

“Art in Transmission”, an article about how looking at art on a phone affects how we perceive and value it, has sparked a bit of conversation on Twitter this morning. The article indulges in some unfortunate generalizations—art is no longer discovered in biennials and fairs and magazines, but on the phone—being high up there for me, but it’s worth a look regardless. Set a bit of time aside for this—it’s written in academic-ese. [Artforum via:Andrew Russeth, Tyler Green, Kriston Capps]

"Intercourses" still from Jesper Just's installation at Danish Pavilion. Image via: The New York Times

Canadian artist Shary Boyle had the National Gallery’s help this year in fundraising for her pavilion, which cost 1.5 Million. That’s pretty cheap—the United States would not even disclose how much was spent on their Pavilion in 2011—and that’s evidenced by their opening, which will host…a cash bar? Canadian culture does not yet understand the power of philanthropy. [The Globe and Mail]

After 20 years, Paul McCarthy’s goat finally got tired of being dry-humped. The sculpture’s motor died two weeks ago. [In The Air]

Andrew Russeth may see more art than Jerry Saltz. He’s recommending the ICP’s Triennial, therefore I will go see it. [Gallerist]

Artist Rirkrit Tiravanjia on Art Basel Hong Kong. “When bankers get together they talk about art,” he said. “When artists get together, they talk about money.” So, this is the state of the blue chip art world; removed from reality. [Bloomberg]

Andrew Goldstein interviews Jesper Just on his new multi-channel film installation at the Danish Pavilion. Just uses a replica city of Paris, located just outside the Chinese city of Hangzhou as his subject. We gave Just’s show at Nicolai Wallner a mixed review when we visited Copenhagen last year, so we’re looking forward to seeing what he does in Venice. Interestingly, the artist collaborated with the New York-based design firm Project Projects to produce an accompanying graphic campaign for “Intercourses” that will run online and as posters in the cities of New York, Hong Kong, Copenhagen, Paris and Shanghai [ArtSpace]